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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2145.PDF
'FLIGHT, 30 September 1960 531 Airport with Ideas A WALK AROUND COPENHAGEN'S KASTRUP Kastrup's new terminal and its two fingers— with provision for a third to the right at a future date. The interior is designed to be altered easily and without undue expense A RECITATION of facts and figures about a new airport,useful though it may be for some purposes, does not reallycontribute much to the an and technique of airport design. Basic information can be obtained from government sources thatare only to eager to provide full facts about civil projects upon which so much public money is today being lavished. Forexample, you can read about the new airport at Kastrup, Copen- hagen, that construction began in September 1957, and that itwas opened in July of this year; that the original budget was Kr 165 million (£8| million) and that by the time it is completelyfinished it will have cost perhaps Kr 200 million (£10i million); that it has a capacity to handle the two million passengers expectedin 1968 at a peak rate of 1,640 an hour; that runway 04/22 is 11,000ft, and runway 12/30 9,300ft, and so on. But those who are planning new airports—including the long-haul terminal at London Airport now under construction—are perhaps more receptive to new ideas—ideas for improving theefficiency, comfort and convenience of the passengers and the people who will serve them. At least this is what one hopes.We tried to assess the new Kastrup terminal not only from the aesthetic viewpoint—this after all is largely a matter of personaltaste—but also from the "ideas" angle. First, aesthetics. Con- noisseurs of airport art forms will probably find little to offendat Kastrup. One's first impression is of apparent vastness: yet the dimensions, 530ft by 225ft and 40ft high, betray the illusion.Perhaps the great expanses of uncluttered floor—left dear to allow for future expansion of the amenities without costly altera-tions—account for this illusion. There is plenty of colour. The ceiling, perforated with big glass cupolas to let in natural light,is blue, the walls are pale green, the walkways and stairs are white and their rails are red and black. The doors are of naturalwood, all the partitions are grey, and there are large expanses of glass screening which always enhances spaciousness. There is afeeling, hard to define, of Scandinavia. One final word on aesthetics: colours, textures and materialsare cleverly used to give an overall impression of cleanliness, spaciousness, and light, and there are no gimmicks like Gatwick'srough unfinished concrete columns, which—one is told—are meant to give an impression of structural strength, but which tomost eyes look just like rough unfinished concrete columns. Let us look now at the good ideas that abound in Kastrup'snew terminal. Some of them are expensive, most of them are not. The best idea of the lot, which could be a bit expensive but whichshould certainly pay for itself, is a computer which automatically processes all passenger check-in data and computes aircraft weightand balance. This allows airlines using Copenhagen to accept passengers only lOmin before flight time. It is unique so far aswe know, and its advantages will not be lost on any operator of 150-seat jet aircraft (or even 50-seat piston aircraft). It meansthe abolition of the passenger manifest, but the Danish Govern- ment did this some time ago. The system guarantees that airlinesdo not overload—which is easy to do when passengers check in at a number of physically separate counters. And it benefits thepassenger, who need no longer check in half or three-quarters of an hour before departure. Another idea that was new to us, and which if installed ab initioshould not be too costly, is what the man who played a large part in the designing of Kastrup, Henning Betak of SAS, described toFlight as "a baggage carousel." This is a large turntable on to which the baggage is fed from the counters by conveyors. Theporters stand round it, or climb on to it, grabbing the baggage labelled for their particular service, flight numbers being placardedcircumferentially round the carousel. It is said to avoid confusion, and it certainly appears to economize in floor space. We particularly noted the clarity of the public address (visualclosed-circuit TV and audio) system. Plentifully distributed around the departures hall and transit lounge on the first floorare television screens displaying departure flight numbers and times. Every so often, heralded by a soft chime, the unattainablybeautiful face of a girl appears and she announces, in Danish, English and German, the departure of each flight. The qualityof the loudspeaker system, which is by AEG, is exceptionally good—a nice change from the incomprehensible percussions stillso prevalent at airports. Of music, so pleasantly dispensed at New York, there was none; perhaps it is worth trying. The TV screens reflect images of the building's windows,making the departures information rather difficult to read; non- reflecting screens are available and are to be installed.While we waited for our flight to depart we watched an old lady of at least 70 arrive in the transit lounge. She was all byherself, looking a little worried, and was absolutely bowed down with hand baggage. Here, we thought, comes a typical airportdesign case. She dumped her bags by one of the many movable armchairs, and while wondering what to do next she spotted oneof the television screens. She went up to it and peered closely, evidently soon being satisfied that she was in the right place ingood time. She checked her watch by one of the great number of clocks around the transit lounge (we counted six from wherewe were sitting) and then strolled around among the shops. These appear to provide for almost everything a passenger needs andat prices not too greatly above those in the city fall profits above a certain amount go to the Government, we gathered]. She visitedthe duty free shop, which is run by SAS at a profit, and which Continued at foot of page overleaf) "Colours, textures and materials are cleverly used to give an overall impression of cleanliness, spaciousness, and light . . ." The departures and transit lounge, and the shops are upstairs
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